Statement from the Millennium Series Regarding the Potential Paintball Ban in Germany

Dear Paintball Community,

As you are all probably aware in Germany over the last few days a move has been proposed by some German politicians to ban paintball. With this in mind I thought it best to express the Millenniums view and of course clarify the status of our next round of the series in Bitburg .

Firstly the event is going ahead as planned as no ban can be imposed before our date. Firstly it has to be debated by the German parliament before any ban, if passed, can be imposed and this cannot take place before the event.

Secondly we feel it is imperative that every player, field owner and paintball business across Europe rally to support the German leg of the Millennium to show to the general public and politicians’ that paintball is a truly international sport, that it is full of committed athletes and is not just a minority sport.

Not to do so would be potentially dangerous for all of us in other European countries, as a ban in such an important country as Germany could set a dangerous precedent for other member states making it easier to follow.

We at the Millennium are putting everything we can into making the return to Bitburg a major success and are doing whatever we can to support the efforts being made by the German paintball federation, leagues and industry to fight off such a ban. I cannot urge you all enough to do the same and help us make it the success it needs to be, if you planed even to come to just one of our events this year I urge you to make it Bitburg . Please do not be ostriches and bury your head in the sand, we all have a lot to lose here. Lack of action now could lead to a creeping ban across the whole of Europe.

This morning we learned that KEE Action Sports Group has purchased Canadian paintball manufacture and product distributor XO Industries. XO has a large foothold in the Canadian market place and has been steadily gaining ground in the United States marketplace by selling quality paintballs at low prices. XO currently manufactures a large line of paintball products including but not limited to several different grades of paintballs, both on and off the field gear and markets to the scenario players under the brand Gen-X-Global. KEE Action Sports has several high profile and extremely successful brands such as BT for the scenario players, a full line RPS Paintballs under the brands EVIL and RPS, and EMPIRE branded playing gear. The two companies will be working to consolidate their brands under one name and distribution network and we can only speculate as to which one is going to win out. However, the real shake up will take place at the end of the season when teams contracts are renegotiated and KEE/XO determine which teams to keep in their Pro stable. KEE currently sponsors the Russian Legion, San Diego Dynasty, Infamous, San Antonio X-Factor and Tampa Bay Damage. XO currently sponsors Edmonton Impact, New England Hurricanes, Orange County Bushwackers and Portland Naughty Dogs. From what we understand, XO Industries has reassured the sponsored teams that their contracts and agreements will be honored. With budgets tightening and the natural focus of acquisition teams being to cut costs and cut out the overlap between the two companies, one can only speculate that they will refocus their sponsorship on an elite group. The deal between KEE and XO is a major move that further consolidates the paint manufacturing industry; on one side we have Procaps/DXS who recently merged with Archon/ZAP, and on the other, KEE merging with PMI and XO. Paintball is going to get interesting!